We need to talk about Cyber Insurance

30th May, 2018

Cyber Insurance has never been a more prevalent topic with GDPR now in full effect and with cyber criminals launching more attacks on UK businesses than ever before, according to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

In such a fast-paced industry that is exposed to evolving threats and rapidly changing risks, how does your business stay ahead of the game? A question that has dominated the insurance industry recently, kickstarted by Insurance Age simulating a data breach for their Hack Day event.

It is believed that today all UK businesses are at risk of falling victim to a cyber-attack and that it is no longer a matter of ‘if’ an attack will happen, but ‘when’, due to increasing attack surfaces. An attack surface is any area that can be hacked, such as emails and server systems.

Donald Toon, Director at National Crime Agency (NCA), has said that “we need to quickly adopt a ‘I’m already compromised’ mentality, and put in place security capabilities that not only block known threats, but that are smart enough to detect and respond in real-time to active threats.”

However, with many businesses admitting to not having an adequate level of cover and safety procedures in place, and budgets not being sufficient enough to respond to a breach, it is clear to see that businesses need to invest more time and money into Cyber Insurance.

In particular, smaller businesses tend to underestimate their exposure, not realising that they also hold data of interest to hackers, such as credit card and customer identity information.

Issues in Cyber Insurance also arise when some brokers are just as baffled as customers. As a truly specialised and niche area, policies should only be placed by brokers who understand how policies are different and how the claims processed would also be different.

Our policies can also cover regulation penalties and fines, including GDPR.

If you are concerned about Cyber Insurance and require further information, please call 0115 973 7303 or email insurance@routenchaplin.co.uk or click here.